Category: Archive
Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Renewables passes $US20b in North America
Oil imports & oil prices to increase renewable energy capacity in U.S. and Canada.
Palo Alto, California [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]
A new analysis released by Frost & Sullivan, "North American Renewable Energy Market: Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities," reveals that revenues in the U.S. and Canadian renewable emergy markets totaled $17.37 billion in 2006, and are likely to reach $24.6 billion in 2010.
In January 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Clean Energy Act. When enforced, this legislation expects to transfer more than $14 billion from certain subsidies to investments in clean energy. Likewise, the Canadian government has launched three new ecoENERGY initiatives for boosting renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Tow views of DiCaprio’s Eleventh Hour
Thumbs Up: The 11th Hour Needs to Be Seen
By Brian Clark Howard
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| Superstar Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie, The 11th Hour, takes a sobering look at our global environmental mess. |
| © Photos Warner Brothers |
“We don’t know where the warming will go, but the worst case would be like our sister planet Venus, where it is 250 degrees Celsius, and where it rains sulfuric acid,” intoned Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s greatest scientists, in his computer-generated voice. The dire warning set much of the tone of the new documentary film The 11th Hour, which opened August 17.
The 11th Hour is presented, narrated, co-produced and co-written by superstar green celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio. The multi-hyphenate actor had enlisted Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen, with whom he had worked on a couple of short green films, to direct the epic 11th Hour for Tree Media Group and Warner Brothers.
Foreign invasion, yet lots of room at the inns
Damien Murphy | September 2, 2007 DISPLAYING the mercy of rulers from distant lands and distant times, the State Government will release people serving periodic detention in Sydney jails during the APEC forum in case prison beds are needed for protesters arrested if demonstrations turn violent. Wags are saying that as Sydney’s hotels have heaps Continue Reading →
Shady character loses his lunch watching activists
Edmund Tadros, August 31, 2007 IF THEY were undercover they stood out like a loud shirt after an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. The burly men in dark glasses milling about the edge of a meeting of activists in Sydney yesterday were not about to blow their cover to the media. One in dark glasses and Continue Reading →
PM’s friendship with Bush sours view of US: poll
AUSTRALIANS still generally like Americans, but a new survey says a low opinion of their President, George Bush, has eroded support for the US’s political role in world affairs and there has been a dampening of enthusiasm for the once-sacrosanct ANZUS alliance.
The finding that Mr Bush is not favourably viewed by many Australians is unhelpful to the Prime Minister, John Howard, as he prepares for the arrival of the US leader in Sydney on Tuesday.
Mr Howard strongly backed Mr Bush’s invasion of Iraq, a decision that has also contributed to Mr Bush’s unpopularity in his home country.
In the new opinion survey, conducted for the Lowy Institute for International Policy, 57 per cent of respondents believed Australia should not continue to be involved militarily in Iraq.
There was an almost equal split between those who thought Australia should keep soldiers in Afghanistan and those opposed to remaining.
The US and its former foe Vietnam both scored 60 on a 100-point scale on the warmth of Australian feelings.
The annual Lowy survey, based on 1003 interviews conducted between May 21 and June 2, found that 39 per cent of Australians had opinions of the US that were either "somewhat" or "very" unfavourable.
"Although attitudes in general were more favourable than not, there was still a substantial body of negative opinion," the survey said in reference to the US.
The extra questions were asked of respondents this year to determine what factors would cause them to have an unfavourable opinion of the US. Leadership and "direction" topped the list of four provided options.
Some 69 per cent said Mr Bush caused them to feel unfavourably towards the US, while 63 per cent said American foreign policies had the same effect.
But US culture found disfavour among only 41 per cent, while personal dealings with Americans prompted less than 20 per cent of Australians surveyed to hold an unfavourable view of the US.
Between 2005 and 2007, the number of Australians who regarded ANZUS as "very important" for Australia’s security fell from 45 per cent to 36 per cent.
And three-quarters thought the US paid little heed to Australia in its foreign policies.
The Lowy survey found Australians were divided on whether it would be good if US political power waned, with slightly more respondents thinking it would be a mainly positive development.
Another poll, conducted by Roy Morgan Research, for a group called GetUp!, found two-thirds of Australians believed Mr Howard’s support for Mr Bush on issues such as climate change and Iraq had hurt Australia’s reputation.
It found that 50 per cent of Liberal/National Coalition voters shared this negative view about the impact of Mr Howard’s support for Mr Bush on such issues.
On climate change, the Lowy survey found Australians regarded this as the greatest external threat – with about 55 per cent of those surveyed "very worried".
That was higher than the proportion very worried over unfriendly countries developing a nuclear weapons capability (50 per cent), Islamic fundamentalism (39 per cent) and international terrorism (38 per cent).
A clear majority of respondents ranked climate change arguments for renewable energy sources to be very convincing. Only 19 per cent took that view on nuclear energy and 15 per cent on so-called "clean coal" technologies.